After the 0-1 defeat against Sturm, Wiener Austria not only missed the jump to second place, but the violets also lost their first game in the current calendar year,
Sturm Graz secured second place in the Bundesliga behind champions Salzburg. The Styrians deservedly defeated Austria 1-0 (0-0) on Sunday afternoon and thus distanced their rivals from Vienna by six points. Graz’s first pursuer – who are still 12 points behind Salzburg – is now Rapid, five points behind. Jon Gorenc-Stankovic scored the decisive goal in the 51st minute after a perfect assist from Otar Kiteishvili.
While Sturm claimed their third win in their fourth league group game in front of 12,000 spectators, Austria suffered their first defeat in their eighth game in the spring. Two clashes with Salzburg are now awaiting Manfred Schmid’s team. Sturm will have to deal with Rapid twice in the next few weeks. Six rounds will still be played in the master group.
Ilzer’s offensive plan is paying off
In the storm, manager Christian Ilzer opted for an offensive variant, in which Kiteishvili was back in the starting eleven for the first time in over six months. Manprit Sarkaria, who has been in great form recently, started in the midfield diamond instead of Stefan Hierländer, who suffered knee problems. Jakob Jantscher returned to attack. Austria responded with a five-man defensive chain. Marvin Martins was sick, Muharem Huskovic was out of shape and Vesel Demaku, who is about to join Sturm, was not in the squad. On offense, Noah Ohio started alongside Marco Djuricin.
Sturm started quickly and attacked the Viennese from the start. Gregory Wüthrich had two opportunities to take the lead early on in normal situations. In the best game, the defender surprisingly appeared alone in front of Patrick Pentz in the 7th minute, the Austrian goalkeeper reacted brilliantly and had the ball in front of the line when he followed up. Pentz was also there three minutes later when Wüthrich took a corner kick.
Safe ball Grazer came out early, took the lead in midfield and put Austria under pressure. Almost no offensive action, but the Violets managed to give Rasmus Höjlund and Co. not a meter of play in the center. Ohio, thanks to its speed, was the biggest source of danger for Sturm’s defense. Leipzig’s loan ignited the turbo after half an hour but put the ball too far, Jörg Siebenhandl was there. He was goalless in the cabins.
Schmid reacts too late
Sturm continued his efforts after switching sides and was rewarded. Kiteishvili saw a wall of people from a free-kick but took a well-judged elbow into Gorenc-Stankovic. The Slovenian, left alone, acted deliberately and defeated Pentz at close range to score his fourth goal of the season.
Austria had to react, Schmid made a triple change and switched to a centre-back. Substitute Romeo Vucic suddenly had the chance to equalize. Siebenhandl successfully spread in front of the 19-year-old (69th). It was Vienna’s first shot on goal. In an intense game, Sturm took things a little more calmly and shifted focus to maintain the result. Austria failed to develop a second major possibility.